See that?" Cody said, a smug tone in his voice. Dawn could only giggle in response.

"Can you move the other one yet?" She asked as Cody slowly brought his right leg up, clearly in some strain from the action.

"Ehehe…" Cody's downer of a laugh told Dawn all she needed to know. "But we're getting there! I'm surprised they can even move this much after so long."

"I'm surprised you have the willpower to do it." A snarky downer of a voice came from behind the pair, and Cody turned back. He didn't need to do that, he could tell who the owner of the voice was with just the first syllables, but Cody felt they were owed his acknowledgement.

Noah.

If looks could kill, Cody was sure he would've gone through twenty loops by now. It was the same look Noah had given him since he made his return, and he doubted it would ever change. That never stopped Cody though.

"Hey Noah, here to help out?" Cody joked, letting his leg fall back. He wasn't in his wheelchair right now, so all he could do was crane his head back, and he worried that it would make him look like a smug prick in the moment.

A haughty snort came from behind him. Typical.

"No, I think you can handle it yourself." Noah said, a very clear hint of 'Please suffer more horrific injuries' in his voice. The boy walked off, leaving Cody and Dawn alone once more.

"His aura has been the same ever since you arrived." Dawn said, still looking towards the path leading from their small abode in the rear of the plane, to the economy section. "He must really hate you."

"I can't really blame him. You remember, right?" Cody asked that question more rhetorically than anything. Of course Dawn would remember- that horrific event was what marked their first true meeting. "But, I want to do right by him. I'd also prefer if he stopped looking like he wanted to kill me." Another pathetic chuckle.

"Well, we'll see how that goes. Let's focus back on your body though." With that, the pair resumed Cody's physio, the boy still struggling, but desperate to walk on his own two feet once again.

Newfoundland was surprisingly one of the few events that remained a non-elimination. Guess Chris wanted to leave a 'favourable' impression of his relative or something.

No Courtney, in addition to Duncan being on the team also meant Cody finally got to experience that clam chowder- pretty heavenly.

Speaking of Duncan- "Hey Dorkus." The delinquent had once again gotten comfortable around Cody, pretty much moving past the whole 'got you eliminated only three games in' thing. He sat next to Cody, bowl of chowder in hand. "What are your thoughts on our team, huh?"

Cody looked at Duncan, a spoonful of clam still in his mouth. The implication was obvious but man… he'd had his fill of romance, and after what happened with Beth, he bet the girls had their fill of him too. Gulping down the food, Cody just looked at the girls they had left.

Heather, Gwen, Sierra, and Dawn.

"They're nice." Cody said simply, nodding his head in a way that implied he had no real opinion on the subject. This was met with a swift smack to the back of his head.

"No you idiot! Which one would you rather do it with?" Duncan chided, as if he was a teacher lecturing Cody on how to direct his sexual hormones. "Unless you're playing for the other team, is that it? Maybe you're into Noah- " It was Duncan's turn to be smacked.

'Why!? Every timeline someone thinks I'm into Noah! I love girls!' Cody cried out mentally, completely oblivious to the murderous look on Duncan's face. "Uh, well… Gwen's nice."

Duncan whistled at that. "Yeah, I hear you man. Tried to get with her when Courtney left, and got immediately rejected. Girl said she has someone on her mind." He sighed and leaned his arm on the table, fist against his cheek. "Heather's a bit too… well, you know, for my tastes. Sierra's a bit too insane, and Dawn… well, you're with her, right?" He looked at Cody curiously, and Cody could only spit out his latest spoonful of the chowder.

"Me? And Dawn?" Cody stammered out, staring intently at the bowl in front of him. "Nu-uh. No way."

Duncan's laugh only caused Cody to look even deeper into the bowl, briefly noticing a stray hair in the chowder. "Alright dude. Just remember to ask her out before someone else goes for her." Duncan strutted away, still snickering, while Cody was just left to his thoughts.

'Dawn's helped me so much already. She's just a good friend, nothing more.' Thoughts like these circled the former 'ladies man's' head, until he eventually found his face plummeting into the bowl of clam chowder.

The crash land in Jamaica was expected, as was Izzy's forced removal from the game. Alejandro's sabotage had shifted targets to Team Amazon due to their continual good fortune, but thankfully he had tried to sabotage Cody and Dawn's bobsled race for whatever reason- having foreknowledge of every event really made it easy to bypass any cheating, huh?

Team Victory ended up losing, and LeShawna ended up being sent home this time, leaving the team as just Bridgette and Ezekiel. Team Chris was down to Alejandro, Noah, and Owen, and Team Amazon was still strong with Cody, Duncan, Dawn, Heather, Sierra, and Gwen. Honestly, it seemed really unfair now.

"Hey Cody, how's the legs doing." Chris' voice surprised Cody, who had found time to lounge in one of the beach chairs using his continually strengthening legs. Cody squinted his eyes up at Chris, wondering what he could possibly want.

"They're doing great now. I can even kind of stumble around. Give it a couple more weeks and I'll be back in action." Cody said smugly, pretty prideful of his progress. Competing on a gameshow after waking up out of a year long coma? Talk about cool.

"Great, great. You're on Team Chris now, bye." Chris said, starting to walk off before Cody could even register what just happened.

"Wait- what!?" Cody shouted, falling out of the chair. Chris turned around, his smug, almost devious, grin on his face.

"You. Team Chris. Punishment for that tiebreaker. Capiche? " Cody then remembered the ever fortunate loophole he'd found back when he nearly got voted off. "Your need for Dawn is purely between challenges now, so we figured you could be easily transferred to a new team."

"But, why not Team Victory? They have less people!" Cody shouted, desperate for some alternative to this, but he should've expected the answer Chris gave him.

"Dude, you barely knew Ezekiel- heck, did you even talk to Bridgette? Meanwhile, you with Noah will get us a lot of interest, and Owen's departure clip has like two million views just because of what he said to you. It's gonna be killer!"

Cody could only roll onto his back, staring up at the sun as if to beg whatever entity did this to him to please reconsider. He already knew though, that no amount of begging would get him anywhere.

"While I would've honestly preferred Duncan, he makes a fine addition to our crew!"

"Hopefully I can convince Owen to send him home next time we lose."

"I miss Izzy."

The reaction his new team had was to be expected. Cody tried to manage a grin, but when Alejandro was your only supporter, you know you've done something wrong.

"Hey guys, since we're on the same team, how about we get to know each other?" Cody suggested, looking the group over. Noah was decidedly unimpressed.

"We had five weeks to get to know each other, and I think I've had my fill." Noah snarked, turning his nose up. "Surprised you haven't strung any of the girls along yet- surprised you haven't turned anyone into bear bait either."

Cody cringed. Before, Noah just regarded him as on the same level as a slug, but now… Cody guessed that being on the same team really set him off.

"Calm down mi amigo. " Alejandro chided Noah, placing a hand on the other boy's shoulder. Noah seemed to still regard Alejandro with disdain at least, shuffling away from him. "If we want to crush Victory and Amazon, we have to work together, like familia ." Cody wondered how long he could withstand Alejandro's mix of Spanish and English.

"As long as I don't have to talk to him, that's fine." Noah snarked, turning away from the group and moving to sit as far away from Cody as possible.

"Uh yeah. What Noah said." Owen added, moving to go join the nerd. That left just Alejandro and Cody. Two snakes, one former, one very much still active.

"Cody, mi amigo , it seems those two wish to make sure your days are numbered here." Alejandro lamented, shaking his head in a dramatic fashion. "I'm sure you can see that I'm the only one here willing to give you a chance- how about we form our alliance now? On the off chance something unfortunate happens to our team, we will simply push the votes towards those two." He jerked his head over to Owen and Noah, who Cody regarded with a forlorn look, desperately wishing things could go back to how they were before.

"Alejandro, I…" Cody started, staring at the two for a few more moments, before directing his attention back to the Spanish boy. "I still want to maintain our deal. No alliance until the merge- it's not like you're in danger of being eliminated anyways, right?" The Spanish boy grit his teeth, but nodded nonetheless. No sense in alienating a potential ally was probably the idea going through his head, despite Cody's own nonsensical ideas at the moment.

But, looking at Noah, he wanted to believe that things could change.

"I feel like an old man using this." Cody mumbled, gripping the walker. He was so close to moving on his own, but still so far in many respects. At least that chair wasn't required anymore.

The group had finally landed in England, where they'd be pursued by Jack the Ripper. Things were different this time though, as each group went to their own secluded environments to do the challenge (and this time, Alejandro hadn't been eliminated first oddly enough). Cody figured Chris just got Chef in this time, since Ezekiel was still in the game, but you never know with this show.

Well, had figured, but the cameras clearly showed two relatively thin Rippers running around in London. He should've known there was no way he'd clear this challenge with his literal handicap at the moment, but just giving up wasn't his style.

Slowly the teams were picked off one by one. Heather came to join him, then Duncan, Alejandro, Sierra, and eventually Dawn. The only ones left were the same as in the original timeline- fate had an odd way of working huh?

Both teams even managed to catch their Jack the Ripper as well, and with no sign of Team Victory… it was obvious who just lost. Ezekiel, having been caught first, was the one chosen for elimination. Still sad, but a notable step up from getting eliminated before the game even started. This left Bridgette all on her lonesome.

Cody reflected on the day's events in the confessional- he'd barely used the thing, but figured he may as well. He hadn't been feeling fight for the past couple weeks, and getting a few things off his chest couldn't hurt.

"And, y'know, I really do want to be friends with Noah. We were friends-ish on the Island, right? Well, I guess not really." Cody sighed, slapping a hand against his forehead. "Owen's a nice guy, I'm sure he'd forgive me- and Sierra hates me. I'm lucky to have made it this far, huh? Gwen's really stuck her neck out there for me, I don't know why but-" the confessional door opened, revealing the girl in question.

"Whoops! Sorry." She said, stepping in and closing the door. "Guess the lock's busted, huh?"

"Y-yeah." Cody scratched the back of his head, still sitting on the confessional 'seat'. He didn't have nearly enough energy to stand right now. "You didn't hear all of that, did you?"

"Just the part about me really." Gwen smiled, sitting next to Cody, and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "Y'know… I can't believe I was right about you."

"What do you mean?" Cody asked, not sure where this was going.

"Well, you remember the end of Island right?" Gwen quickly realized what 'the end' could refer to, and got more specific. "Back at the resort, when we watched your video. You just seemed kind of like a geeky kid that wanted to make friends. I didn't realize you were so dedicated to helping everyone, even if it is a bit self-serving."

"Can you blame me? It sucks having everyone hate you." Cody sighed looking down at the floor. "You know, this show was really the first time I could be someone completely different. Someone people could really notice . My parents… they never were around, and at school people only kept me around because of my computer smarts. Coming to the show I hoped to really… change all that."

"Then why did you keep acting like a dick?" Gwen said, bemused at the explanation, but a notable look of understanding in her eyes. Cody smiled at that.

"I was scared- I think you guessed that. Everything I did was to just create the type of person I thought I needed to be." Cody wasn't sure what loop he was even talking about anymore. "I used to do the same thing to get my parents to recognize me. It's a bit embarrassing, but back when I was a kid, I'd dress up for my mother a lot."

"Dress up? Like, Halloween costumes?" Gwen asked, looking at Cody in confusion. Cody just laughed, a small blush on his cheeks.

"Like… dresses. Skirts and everything. One of my earliest memories is my mom saying she wanted a girl instead." He sighed, putting his head in his hands. "I just… let myself change to what I think will appeal the most to other people. Guess that was the start of it." His thoughts were broken up by his head being lifted up, and soft lips brushing against his own, a tongue rubbing against his own.

They were familiar, but instead of feeling his own disgust at himself, he could only feel the shock and surprise of the moment. Eventually, the lips pulled away, saliva trailing down his chin, and Cody looked over to Gwen, who was smiling.

"Well, I like the real you the most." Gwen said, taking away her arm and walking off, a small blush on her cheeks. Neither one of them had noticed a certain delinquent that had opened the door just to witness the surprise kiss- though neither would have cared either way.